Call for Papers 2015 Graduate Colloquium: Afterlives
York University: May 22-23, 2015

As Dr. Cornel West has stated in multiple public addresses, "human comes from the word "humando", which means burying." This etymology suggests that endings are an essential part of being human. As a natural corollary, civilizations have produced canons of artistic works that have distinct temporal boundaries. Why, then, are we still drawn to notions of what comes after? The "Afterlives" Colloquium hopes to explore issues of afterward, aftermath, or the afterlife, their formal iterations, and what they reveal about us as humans. For instance, in what ways do we distinguish between life and that which is after it, and how do such parameters reveal, change, or illuminate our definitions of "life"?

One may consider the potential gains in viewing texts and other artistic media as living objects that have corporeal dimensions. Such considerations might offer insight into the necessity (or non-necessity) of art and textuality in the lives and deaths of humans. In answering these questions papers may employ a wide range of genres, forms, and theoretical frameworks and both secular and religious/spiritual perspectives.

Interpretations may include but are not limited to: Modernist or gothic representations of ghosts and hauntings; discussions of the "lives" and receptions of texts following the death of their authors; literary and artistic depictions of physical and psychological wounds; pop culture representations of the undead; serial podcasts centred on murder investigations, musical forms, ghost tours; haunted houses that have become historical sites; religious concepts and phenomena; mind/perspective-altering experiences; and political events centred on mass death(s)

Please submit an abstract of 250 words for a 20-minute paper and a 100-word biography to colloquiumsubmissions2015@gmail.com by Friday April 3, 2015.